September 19, 2016
(Vox) – In the United States today, these two techniques lead to about 100,000 births each year, roughly 2.5 percent of the 4 million children born annually. Within the next few decades, that percentage will skyrocket. Developments in bioscience, galloping … Read More
September 7, 2016
(The Conversation) – People have long dreamed of being smarter, stronger, faster. But now it seems that cutting edge technologies are out there, or in development, that might enable us truly to enhance our cognitive and physical capabilities. At the … Read More
September 6, 2016
Journal of Medical Ethics (vol. 42, no. 8, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Should Uterus Transplants be Publicly Funded?” by Stephen Wilkinson and Nicola Jane Williams “Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing and the Libertarian Right to Test” … Read More
September 5, 2016
(The New Yorker) – To achieve today’s desirable veneer of innocence, the industry recommends a practice of constant, self-diagnostic work. This is not new, of course. “We are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism,” Donna Haraway … Read More
September 1, 2016
Bioethics (vol. 30, no. 7, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Autonomy is a Right, Not a Feat: How Theoretical Misconceptions have Muddled the Debate on Dynamic Consent to Biobank Research” by Linus Johnsson and Stefan Eriksson … Read More
August 29, 2016
(Undark Magazine) – For the first time in Olympic history, the World Anti-Doping Agency — the international foundation charged with keeping performance-enhancing drugs out of professional sports — began testing athletes in Rio for evidence that they had tried to alter their … Read More
August 23, 2016
(The Guardian) – The head of the International Paralympic Committee said the organisation’s firm anti-doping stance has been vindicated after the court of arbitration for sport dismissed Russia’s appeal against their exclusion from next month’s Paralympic Games in Rio. The … Read More
August 17, 2016
(Forbes) Beginning with the opening ceremonies, you’ll probably see some of Brazil’s most “beautiful people” through the course of the Summer Olympic Games in Rio. You may be thinking that you’d like to have that butt, that nose or those breasts. Well, … Read More
August 12, 2016
(Scientific American) – Paralympic long jump champ Markus Rehm’s bid to compete in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics fell short in July when he could not prove that his carbon-fiber “blade” prosthesis didn’t give him an advantage. His baffling … Read More
August 12, 2016
(CNN) – Until recently, women with naturally high levels of testosterone — known as hyperandrogenism — were not allowed to race without undergoing medical interventions to lower their levels of the hormone if they were measured to be within the … Read More
August 12, 2016
(Yahoo! News) – Brazil currently follows the United States as the second most-popular hot spot for cosmetic surgery and is a top booked destination for “plastic surgery medical tourism” this year — a term used to describe travel outside of … Read More
August 9, 2016
(The Conversation) – Gene doping is simply gene therapy in people who don’t need it. The aim of gene therapy is to permanently cure sick individuals of their conditions by altering their genetic makeup. The aim of gene doping, meanwhile, … Read More
August 5, 2016
The New Bioethics (vol. 22, no. 2, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “The Human Figure and Urban Ground: Cyborgs and the City” by Aaron Parkhurst “Managing Bodies, Managing Persons: Postmortem Care and the Role of the Nurse” … Read More
August 3, 2016
(MIT Technology Review) – The latest advancement in anti-aging therapies hardly sounds like modern medicine at all. Ambrosia, a startup based in Monterey, California, is launching a clinical trial to inject the blood of young people into just about anyone … Read More
August 3, 2016
(Nature) – Around the world, nearly 80 research groups in 25 countries are honing their technologies for the €5-million (US$5.5-million) event. They range from small, ad hoc teams to the world’s largest manufacturers of advanced prostheses, and comprise about 300 … Read More
August 3, 2016
(The Conversation) – So are we on the brink of a brave new world of genetically enhanced humanity? Perhaps. And there’s an interesting wrinkle: It’s reasonable to believe that any seismic shift toward genetic enhancement will not be centered in … Read More
August 2, 2016
(Nature) – Most people in the United States are more worried than enthusiastic about the prospect of scientific advances such as gene editing and brain-chip implants, a survey of thousands suggests. The Pew Research Center in Washington DC asked 4,726 … Read More
July 28, 2016
(Wired) – In fact, drug regulators are usually playing catch up to drug users. But next month at the Rio Olympics, officials will roll out a test for a doping method that athletes might not even be using yet—genetic manipulation of the … Read More
July 27, 2016
(Scientific American) – The Summer Olympics are poised to begin in Rio de Janeiro. Time to celebrate the extraordinary talent, fortitude and grace of athletes representing the world’s diverse nations, from Iceland to Nigeria. And time to wonder how many … Read More
July 27, 2016
(Pew Research Center) – Cutting-edge biomedical technologies that could push the boundaries of human abilities may soon be available, making people’s minds sharper and their bodies stronger and healthier than ever before. But a new Pew Research Center survey of … Read More
July 26, 2016
Public Understand of Science (vol. 25, no. 5, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Public Opinions About Human Enhancement can Enhance the Expert-Only Debate: A Review Study” by Anne M. Dijkstra and Mirjam Schuijff ‘Public Engagement with … Read More
July 25, 2016
(The Guardian) – In September 2015, Parrish, then 44, flew to Colombia to receive two experimental gene therapies. One was a myostatin inhibitor, a drug that is being tested as a treatment for muscle loss. The other was a telomerase … Read More
July 20, 2016
Bioethics (vol. 30, no. 6, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “The Biodefense Field” by Emilio Mordini “Enhancing Beyond What Ought to be the Case – A Conceptual Clarification” by Raphael Van Riel “The Epistemology of Moral … Read More
July 14, 2016
(Inverse) – Thanks to science, we already have cyborg rats and cyborg beetles. Cyborg humans seem inevitable — all the more so now that Luke Skywalker-style advanced prosthetics are coming to market. While bionics are not yet advanced enough to … Read More
July 14, 2016
(The Atlantic) – And why stop with Granny? You could have the same afterlife for yourself in any simulated environment you like. But even if that kind of technology is possible, and even if that digital entity thought of itself … Read More
